Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Marquise Brown and Joseph Woods were arraigned this week on an indictment charging them with murder in the fatal shooting of 48-year-old Yaw Pabi in South Jamaica in April 2022. Both defendants fled to their home state of Virginia following the shooting and were extradited last week to face charges.

District Attorney Katz said: “We are charging the defendants with a cold-blooded murder in yet another act of deadly gun violence. We will continue fighting this scourge of guns and bloodshed with everything we have, both on the streets and in the courts.”

Brown, 25, of Alexandria, VA and Woods, 38, of Dolphin, VA, were arraigned on a five-count indictment charging them with murder in the second degree and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

Brown and Woods face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Justice Michael Aloise ordered Brown to return to court on April 25 and Woods on May 21.

According to the charges:

• Video surveillance shows that on April 16, 2022, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Brown and Woods exited a parked silver Hyundai sedan while wearing face masks, approached a group of men standing on the sidewalk – including the victim and the victim’s brother and cousin – and fired multiple shots in their direction.

 

• Pabi, who has no known connections to the defendants, was hit in the head and torso. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead as a result of his injuries. No one else was injured.

 

• Brown and Woods ran back to the Hyundai and drove away.

 

• An investigation using video surveillance and license plate readers placed the Hyundai at a deli in Hamilton Heights in Manhattan earlier in the day.

 

• Video surveillance showed the defendants inside the deli wearing the same clothing they were wearing during the shooting.

 

• The store video also showed a man in the defendant’s group purchasing face masks and gloves that the defendants appeared to have been wearing during the shooting.

 

• Brown and Woods were later identified by law enforcement officers in Virginia, where the two reside.

 

• Brown and Woods were arrested in Virginia on March 12, 2024 and extradited last week to face charges.

The initial investigation was conducted by Detective Brian Heerey of the NYPD’s 113 Precinct Detective Squad and Detective Christopher Alden of the NYPD’s Queens South Homicide Squad.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Graham Amodeo of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Antonio Vittiglio, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys John Kosinski, Bureau Chief, and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.